Wardrobe or the like structure



May 13, 1930. y R. T. McKNEw 1,758,291

wARDRoBE on THE LIKE STRUCTURE Fiied .my 17, 1929` Vdc/waard vac/waard..j

Patented May 13, 1930 RICHARD T. MCXNEW, or WASHINGTON, -nrsrarcr or.COLUMBIA WARDROBE on THE LIKE STRUCTURE Application led July 17z 1929.Serial No. 378,950.

This invention relates to a Wardrobe or the like structure, such as hasbecome al part of the standard equipment of schools.

recess or alcove formed in the wall of a school classroom, such recessbeing provided at its .back wall with a plurality of hooks upon whichgarments may'- be hung. Across the front of the recess is provided aplurality ofdoors which, when inv closed position, completely close theopening of the recess or alcove, and are usually provided upon theiroutside faces with blackboards which form a continuous blackboardsurface across the face of t-he alcove, such dors when' open affordingready1 access to the entire interior wardrobe space within the alcove.

In the wardrobes of those types with which I am familiar, the hooks uponwhich the garments of the students may be hung, are arranged upon theback wall of the alcove without any particular predetermined spacing,and thef clothing of the students when hung upon such hooks will, Vwhenthe classes are large, as they usually Aare, overlap. This overlappingorbunching of the clothing against the back wall of the wardrobe recesswardrobe, thereby decreasing t has a number of disadvantages. Generalleach student is assigned a particular hoo and when a number of garmentsare in place upon the hooks, it is sometimes diicult for a student tohang his garments upon his allotted hook .or to remove themtherefromwithout disturbing, disarranging or mussing the adjacent garments. InWet weather, garments which are hung in the wardrobe wet, will'wetothers adjacent to them which may lbe dry,.

and, moreover, adequate ventilation of the garments while hanging is notprovided for,

Moreover, in lthose wardrobes with which I am familiar the doors, whenin the open position decrease the cubical capacity of the e'ease withwhich students may have access to the available wardrobel space andcausing crowding and confusion.

One of the objects of'my invention is to so A furnish the interior. ofthe wardrobe, 'and to so arran e the hooks provided therein, that theldisa vantages mentioned as to bunching fitting and trying on the Job.

and faulty ventilation of clothing will be done away with. Obviously,this necessitates such spacing of the hooks 'as to provide for theLockers of this type generally com-prise a wardrobe of a givenclassroom, some support for Vthe hooks must be jrovided other than 00the back wall of the wa robe alcove alone if proper separation andventilation of the garments is to be secured, and another object oftheinvention is to provide means whereby the requisite number ofhooksmay befur- 6 5 nished .and a proper, adequate, spacing of same obtained. c

Still another object of the invention -is to so arrange the hooks that,when the wardrobeV is open, all o f the hooks and the garments hungthereon, are in full View.

' A further object of the invention is to so arrange the doors whichform the closure `for the wardrobe, and to provide such a number ofdoors for this purpose, that doors of ordinary construction and standardsizes may be used.

access of students to the wardrobe and pre-7 p venting crowding andconfusion. Still another object of the invention is to $0 provide doorsof such width that the b1ack' boards carried thereby will each furnishade-y quate space u on which astudent may work;

A further o ject is to provide means whereby, fOr a Wardrobe alcove ofgivenl width, 90gthe hardware .for the doors for closlno same ma beappropriately located at the factory and' be thus positioned accurately,wlthout' With these objects in Yiew, the invention contemplates awardrob'br the like struce. ture, comprising in combination with awalled recess, a pluraht of doors for closing the recess, these doorsbeing so sup rted and guided as to move into open position substantiallylo at right angles to the `back wall of the recess.

' The back wallof the recess and the back sur-` faces of the doors areprovided with shelves, each of which carries a plurality of dependinghooks arranged in such relation as to furnish adequate spacing ofthe-garments hung thereon,'the shelves being so formed that,

when the doors are in the open position, the

\ shelves carried by the doors and the shelves folniin eectcontinuousshelves. And the carried by the back wall of thc recess, will inventioncontemplates, further, a number, size and arrangement of doors wherebythe capacity of the wardrobe may be varied, and "1t contemplates alsovarious details of constructlonjmd arrangements of parts, as I will In awall of the classroom, usually a partition wall, is rovided a recess oralcove 1. A standard width' for such an alcove is seventeen feet, and astandard depth foisame is two feet two inches. These dimensions aregiven merely as being illustrative of the size of recess which hasbeenjound to furnish adequate wardrobe space for the reception of thegarments of a class of students of normal size, for example, forty-onestudents. The interlor of this recess is usually iinished with' plaster,as indicated at 2, to form a neat,

- sanitary, interior and is provided with ornamental or other trim, asindicated at 3, and has the usual'base-molding 4.

Securedto the back wall of the. wardrobe recess is a plurality ofvertical battens 5 to which are'applied inverted'shelf brackets 6, fromwhich are hung shelves' 7, which latter a-re preferably of slat type, asindicated at 8, Fig. 2, and have an upstanding outer rim9, for a purposelater described. f Across the front opening of the alcove and adaptedwhen in closed position to completely close same, is aplurality, six inthe 'form shown, of doors 10and 11. Each of these doors is provided, asshown, with a hinge member 12, upon which itis mounted for swingingmovement by brackets 13 arranged at top and bottom, the extremities ofthe hinged-members 412 beingbent substantially at right angles to formoiit'set arms 14 and 15 at the bottoms and tops of the doors,.respectively. The arms 14 arepivotally mounted at their extremitiesupon pivot members 16,

preferably previously located by and aiiixed to a plate 17 which mayextend the full width of the wardrobe. The members 15 are similarlypivotally connected with pivot members 18 which also are positioned andcarried by a plate 19 at the top of the wardrobe and similar .to theplate 17.

VThe top of each of the doors is provided adjacent to one edge with aroller 20, and

these rollers are embraced by and adapted to travel within the guideslots 21 of guide plates 2 2, such as shown in Fig. 3, and indicated indotted lines'at the left of F ig. 2 secured to the ceiling of thewardrobe. With the doors thus hung, it will be seen that when they areswung upon their pivot members l2 they will be guided by the engagementof the rollers 20 with the slots 21 into the open position shown at theright hand side ot Figs. 1 and 2, substantially at right angles to v theback wall of the wardrobe recess, thus providing across the width of thewardrobe three large openings which aiord ready access to the interiorof the wardrobe, and permit its interior and all articles therein to beeasily seen.

Obviously, any suitable mounting means for the doors whereby they may bemoved from closed to open position, and vice ve sa, may be substitutedfor the means s/lon/gd described.

. It will be noted that byusing doors having a width which is one-sixthof the width ofl the alcove, or two feet ten inches in the instanceshown, these doors when in the open position project beyond the plane ofthe wall in which the alcove is located. Thus when the doors are openthe cubical capacity of the wardrobe is greater than when it is closed'and more adequate. wardrobe space is aiorded. In this connection it isto`be noted that, no matter what the number of doors used -may be, solong as these doors have a width greater than the depth of the alcovethe increase in cubical capacity of the wardrobe' when the doors areopen will result. It therefore will be understood that my invention 1snot limited to the useof six doors.

On each ofthe doors 11 is mounted a pair of inverted shelf brackets 23,and these brackets carry'slat shelves 24 extending the full width ofthedoors at substantially the.

same` height as the shelves 7 carriedby the back wall. These shelves 24are also provided with' upstanding outer' rims 25 similar to the rims9.V

As willbe seen, the adjacent .ends of thc shelves 7 are cut off at anangle of substantially forty-five degrees. Also the adjacent ends of theshelves 24 carried by the doors are cut oit at an angle of substantiallyfortyve degrees. Thus, when the doors are in the open position (seeright of Fig. 2), there willl be a plurality of four. substantiallycontinuous rightl angled or L-shaped shelvesfrunmng tively spaced aparta distance suiicient to )rovide adequate clearance and Ventilationretween garments 'hung thereon, and the rows of hooks themselves aresimilarly spaced apart. Moreover, the hooks 27 of the front 4row arespaced in staggered relation to the hooks 26 of the back row, and thusit will be seen that no garments are hung in superposed relation, andthat allgarments, in addition to being adequately spaced apart, may bedistinctly seen bylooking into the wardrobe. The particular type ofshelf bracket shown has been found to be the most .practical forinstallations of this kind, for the reason that it does not obstruct thespace below the shelf, which latter is devoted to the hanging ofgarments, and it does not obstruct the shelves themselves in that itssupporting strut'28 is so formed as tol permit free access beneath it,so that hats, packages, and the like may be withdrawn from the endsotthe shelves. i r

By providing the upstanding rims 9 on the shelves, articles areprevented from rolling orti? of the shelves and getting onto the floorof the wardrobe.

If desired, umbrella racks 29 may be arranged at each end ofthewardrobe. Where such umbrella racks are provided, it is `found desirableto omit hooks which might lie above them, and, furthermore, no shelvesare provided upon the doors 10 which are located at the extreme sides ofthe wardrobe. Ob-

-viously, however, both shelves upon these doors and hooks upon theshelves may .be provided if necessary or desirable.

It will be apparent that when the wardrobe is closed (see left of Figs.1 and 2) the fourrows of hooks 26 and 27 carried the shelves of the backwall and the shelves of the doors will all be so relatively spaced as toafford' ample separation and ventilation of the clothing hung thereon.

If desired, locker space may be provided at the sides'of the wardrobe,as is customary in some. installations of this character, forthe-private use of the teacher, andfor the storage of supplies.

I have hereinbefore referred to tl1e use of.

, standard stock` sizes-of ldoors for forming the front closure for myWardrobe'. In this con- -nection it will be noted that, in theembodiment shown, I use, in all, six doors for closing the wardrobe.Each of these doors, where the width of the recess is seventeen feet,will l be two feet ten inches in width, which is a stock width. If thewidth 'of the alcove is increased or deereasedby one foot, six doors maystill be used, but each door will'be either two inches greater or twoinches less in width, thus making up or deducting the extra foot.

' of doors for This is possible without recourse to special fitting,because ydoors come in stock sizes ranging from two et to three feetfour inches, andl sometimes more, the width being increased in multiplesof two inches.

As will be seen by reference to Flg. 1, the doors are of such a ieight,and so supported,

that an air space 30 is provided beneath them and running the full widthofthe alcove.

It will thus be seen that by reiinements of 'construction contemplatedbyv myinvention, I provide a wardrobe structure in which the usualnumber o f garments may be hung without crowding and, overlapping, andwith the assurance that the garments will receive proper ventilationwhile in the wardrobe, also that the cubical capacity of the wardrobewhen open is greater than when closed,

and, moreover, I provide shelves'of such form and arrangement that, whenthe wardrobe 1s open they willV be substantially continuous.Furthermore, V these shelves furnish a support whereby the garmentarranged and spaced as desired.

Various changes are contemplated as with- ,in-the spirit of theinvention and the scope of the following claims. I-Vhat I claim is 1. Ina wardrobe or means, and a' shelf arranged uponsaidback wall, saidclosing means being arranged to means and the shelf on said back wall insubstantial continuity.

2. In a wardrobe or the likevstructure, hav- 'ing an open front and aback wall, a plurality closing said open front, a shelf carried by. saidback wall, a shelf carriedby each ot said doors, and meansforsupportingsaid doors whereby they may be moved into said recess inopen'positionsubstantially normal to said back wall, the shelves of said doors whenin open position alining in substantial continuity :with the shelf ofsaid back wall,

aline 3. In a wardrobe or the like structure., having an open front anda back ,wa-ll, a plurality of. independently `operable doors .forclosing said front, av lurality ofmshelvesrcarried by -said back'wial ,ashelf carried upon the back of veach of said doors, and means forsupporthooks may be suitablyf the like structure, having an open frontand a back wall, means for closing said front, a shelf carried by saiding each ofisai'd doors whereby the doors may be moved to open positionsubstantially within said recess and'substantially normal to said backwalhsaid shelves being so formed that. l

when the. doors are open the shelves carried by them' will cooperatewith the shelves carried by the'back wall to form a plurality ofsubstantially continuous shelves.

f4. In a wardrobe or the like structure, having an open vf rontgand aback wall, `a plurality of independently operable doors providing aclosurefor` saidfront, a plurality of shelvesv I carried by said backWall, a she carried by each door, and a support'for each door and uponwhich it may be moved to open position substantially within said recessand substantially normal to said back wall, the

shelves of the doors and the shelves of the back Wall lying in intimaterelation when the doors are open and having their adjacent ends miteredso as to form substantially continuous self sectionshetween the backWall and doors.

5. In a Wardrobe or the like structure, having an open front and abackwall, a plurality of independently operabley doors providingr a closurefor said front, a plurality of shelves carried by said back wall, ashelf .carried by each of said doors, hooks carried by each of saidshelves, and a support for each door and upon which it may be moved toopen position with its shelf sub stantially at right angles to a shelfcarried by the back wall to thus form asubstantially continuous L-shapedshelf, the arrangement of said hooks being such that they aresubstantiallv evenly spaced throughout said L- jshaped shelf.

In testimony whereof I have' hereunto set my hand this 17th day of JulyA. D. 1929. RICHARD T. MGKNEW.

a plurality of garment

